This Too Shall Pass (song)
Encyclopedia
"This Too Shall Pass" is an alternative rock
song by OK Go
from the album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky
. The single was released in January 2010. The band took the unorthodox route of creating two official music videos for the song, both of which premiered on YouTube
. The first features a live performance of the song in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame
Marching Band. The second features a giant Rube Goldberg machine
, constructed to operate in time with the song. The popularity of the second music video of the song has been compared to that of the band's video for "Here It Goes Again
", helping to boost live performances and single song sales for the group but did not significantly improve sales of the Colour album. Difficulties in marketing and distribution of the videos with their corporate label, EMI
, led the band to form their own independent label shortly after the videos' releases.
. The song continues much of the theme of Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, which, according to Damian Kulash
, was about "searching for hope in hopeless times"; "This Too Shall Pass" and other songs from the album were written at the onset of the late-2000s recession. Billboard
considered the song to be a "psych-pop anthem", similar to MGMT
's "Kids
"; this is in part due to the album's producer Dave Fridmann
who had also worked with MGMT and The Flaming Lips
and brought some of the same musical stylings along. The song's repeating four-note motif is reminiscent of the opening moments of Bob Marley
's song "Mr. Brown
".
on January 12, 2010, to coincide with the release of the album and the single. Directed by Brian L. Perkins, it was filmed in October, 2009, in South Bend, Indiana
. The video is somewhat unusual in that it does not feature the album version of the song. Rather, it features an original recording that was actually performed live during filming of the video. OK Go's Tim Nordwind noted that the song lent itself well to large orchestration.
In the video, the members of OK Go are seen in a field wearing marching band garb. They begin to march, and as the song progresses, the band is joined by members of the University of Notre Dame
's Marching Band many of whom rise up camouflaged in ghillie suits. They are also joined in the final chorus by a children's choir cobbled together from two local South Bend preschools. Like many of their other videos, the marching band video was shot in one take.
The marching band video was created to bridge the time between the release of the album and the expected completion of the Rube Goldberg video. The band had originally planned to release the marching band version after the debut of the Rube Goldberg video. However, they found time during October 2009 to work with the Notre Dame band, and realizing the length of time to complete the Rube Goldberg machine, went ahead and completed the marching band version.
", the "This Too Shall Pass" video features a four-minute, apparent one shot
sequence of the song being played in time to the actions of a giant Rube Goldberg machine
built in a two-story warehouse from over 700 household objects, traversing an estimated half-mile course. As the song and machine operate, the members of the band are seen singing alongside the machine, with the members being shot at by paint guns at the song's finale. Parts of the machine are synchronized in time with the music; in one instance, water glasses are used to repeat part of the song's melody in the fashion of a glass harp
. One part of the machine shows the "Here It Goes Again
" video on a television before it is smashed by the machine. The MAKE magazine
1993 Ford Escort racecar used for the "24 Hours of LeMons
" which was contributed by team member Brett Doar, appears in the video along with a LEGO
version of the car. Alongside the LEGO car, several LEGO mini-figurines are displayed as a reference to the marching band video.
(including some who work at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
and participated in the Mars Exploration Rover
program, hence the model rover seen in the video) and MIT Media Lab
helped to design and construct the machine. Damian Kulash's father (Damian Kulash Sr.) also participated in the machine's construction. The team had to work on a limited budget, using recycled trash for many of the props in the device; after filming, the total estimated cost was approximately $90,000. The team avoided the use of "magic"—automated devices like computers or motors—and instead focused on purely physical devices. The total time to create the video from conceptualization was about six months, with two months of planning and four months for design and filming. The warehouse where filming took place was in the Echo Park
section of Los Angeles, and was secured by Syyn Labs in November 2009. The final construction within the warehouse took over a month and a half during January and February 2010. The band members helped in the last two weeks of construction, having spent the previous four months on tour. Once the machine was completed, the filming, using a single Steadicam
, took two days to complete on February 11 and 12, with an estimated 60 takes for the machine to properly function. The first day of filming included 47 takes, none of which successfully completed the entire machine and necessitated a second day of filming. Many of the takes ended only 30 seconds into the process, at the start of the song's chorus, where a tire would fail to roll properly into the next section of the machine. Syyn Labs had a group of 30 people to help reset the machine after each failed take, a process that took upwards of an hour depending on how far the machine ran. There were no significant injuries during filming; Tim Nordwind once was hit hard with paint at the end, while the Steadicam operator nearly got hit with one of the barrels at the end of the mechanism in the shot used for the final video. His reaction may be seen in the released version of the video.
Several elements of the machine had to be properly adjusted to match the timing for the song. The group broke the song into sections, triggered when the machine passed certain gates, to account for small changes in timing that could occur (up to 0.5 sec, according to Brett Doar, one of the machine's chief designers), allowing the band to continue to lip synch while the machine operated. Smaller objects like dominoes were found to be the trickiest to set, as their patterns would be less predictable than larger and bulkier objects, which are more predominant in the later parts of the machine. Once the machine transitioned to the downstairs portion, it would generally run the rest of the course untouched. Furthermore, the time of day and temperature would play a big factor in how some small components would behave, forcing the team to readjust the timing. Ball tracks and other features had to be wiped clear of dust and debris to prevent slowing down rolling objects. A carved wooden ball track shown early in the video was created to have motions timed to the music, but required a low inclined angle that would often cause the balls to skip out of the tracks. Kulash noted that their largest "nightmare" for the machine was a set of mousetraps, triggered to release a display of colored flags; they were found to be overly sensitive to earlier actions of the machine, such as the dropping of a piano, and redesign and padding were needed to prevent the traps from being set off prematurely. The timing had to take into account the movements of both the band members and the cameraman; Damien Kulash estimated that though the machine was able to complete its opening at least three times, these shots were botched, because either the band members or the cameraman had fallen behind the action of the machine.
While the video was filmed as a single shot on at least three different occasions, they planned on using post-editing to slow down or speed up certain parts of the take to keep it in time with the final soundtrack. There is a noted cut in the video, in which the camera passes through a set of curtains on the transition to the downstairs portion of the machine; according to one of the machine designers, Hector Alvarez, this cut was introduced by the band, speculating it was introduced to avoid a shot of one of the band members or cameraman in frame or otherwise to keep the machine video synchronized to the machine. Both Tim Nordwind, bassist for the band, and Adam Sadowsky
, president of Syyn Labs, said that while the machine worked in its entirety 3 times, and no cut was needed, the decision was made so a better result on the downstairs portion could be included in the final version. There was also a second cut which can be noticed by watching a piano against a wall as the camera passed behind some rods; the piano can be seen apparently warping in shape and position.
on March 2, 2010. Within a day of the video's premiere, it was viewed more than 900,000 times. The video achieved 6 million views within six days, which was comparable to the popularity of the "Here It Goes Again" video, and was considered "instantly viral" by CNN
. The video has since had more than 10 million views in its first month of release. As part of the success of both videos, the band has begun auctioning props from the videos, including uniforms worn by the band for the marching band video and the individual ping-pong balls from the second video. The Rube Goldberg video was included in a shortlist of 125 entries out of 23,000 for inclusion in "YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video", a showcase of the best user-created videos from YouTube in conjunction with the Guggenheim Museums
, but ultimately was not selected as one of the 25 winning videos.
Despite the success of the videos on the Internet, this has not translated into sales for the album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky which the song is a part of, selling only 40,000 copies since its January release. Part of this is attributed to the "unremarkable" music on the album and for the video; musician Max Tundra
suggested that the band should "record an innovative, exciting piece of music – and make a plodding, nondescript video to go with it." However, ticket sales for OK Go concerts have seen a surge since the video's release, as well as sales of digital downloads of the song through services like iTunes
. According to Nordwind, the band is not concerned with album sales, as their successes have come from "untraditional ways" through the band's career. Kulash has stated that with the continued success of their music videos as viral videos as was the case for "This Too Shall Pass", the band has seen more touring opportunities and an expanded audience they don't believe they would have gotten with more traditional videos under corporate label control. This has led OK Go to "look at making videos like [they] look at making records — it's part of the art of what [they] do", according to Nordwind. In part of the success of "This Too Shall Pass" and their previous videos, OK Go won the 14th Annual Webby
Special Achievement Award for Film and Video Artist of the Year. The video was named both "Video of the Year" and "Best Rock Video" at the 3rd annual UK Music Video Awards
.
In May 2010, after the band split with EMI, the single debuted at #39 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, their first appearance on the chart since "Here It Goes Again
" in 2006. The song eventually peaked at #36.
At the time of the creation of the video, Syyn Labs has just been formed; the viral success of "This Too Shall Pass" brought the company to light for several similar creative projects involving the innovative combination of technology. When OK Go appeared on The Colbert Report on April 29, 2010 in which they performed "This Too Shall Pass", Stephen Colbert
opened the show with another, shorter Rube Goldberg machine created by Syyn Lab's Brett Doar, one of the chief creators of the "This Too Shall Pass" music video, using assorted props from the show. Syyn Labs have since created advertisements for Disney and Sears, and have been contacted for future work in music videos and movie opening sequences, and are considering a reality television show based on their creative process.
(through Capitol Records
), and YouTube
, the video was not embeddable, nor was it viewable across the globe, frustrating many fans and music industry professionals who wanted to post the video on their blogs. The band, led by singer Damian Kulash, explained the label's rationale via the band's blog and through an op-ed piece in the New York Times. According to Kulash, EMI disallowed the embeddable play of the video because they only receive royalties for views on the YouTube site itself. He further pleaded to allow embedding of their next video, citing a 90% drop in viewership when EMI disabled embedding on existing videos, affecting the band's own royalties from viewership.
The band was able to secure the rights to allow the "This Too Shall Pass" Rube Goldberg video to be distributed via embedding prior to its premiere, in part due to funding support from State Farm Insurance
, which helped to settle issues with EMI; in exchange, State Farm had some say in the creative process, and the video includes elements with the State Farm logo, including a toy truck that is used to start the machine. The video was completed a week later than expected; according to sources close to the band, Capital Records considered the window of opportunity for promoting the single to radio to be closed due to the delay, and would not be available again until June 2010. The band has since decided to break away from the EMI label on amiable terms, due to a combination of the issues of video embedding and radio promotions, and has become its own independent recording label, Paracadute Recordings.
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
song by OK Go
OK Go
OK Go is a rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, USA, now residing in Los Angeles, California, USA. The band is composed of Damian Kulash , Tim Nordwind , Dan Konopka and Andy Ross , who joined them in 2005, replacing Andy Duncan...
from the album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky
Of the Blue Colour of the Sky
Of the Blue Colour of the Sky is the third studio album by American rock band OK Go. It was released on January 12, 2010 on Capitol Records in the USA and EMI in the UK, and re-released on the band's independent label Paracadute Records on April 1. After the band's split with EMI and Capitol,...
. The single was released in January 2010. The band took the unorthodox route of creating two official music videos for the song, both of which premiered on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. The first features a live performance of the song in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
Marching Band. The second features a giant Rube Goldberg machine
Rube Goldberg machine
A Rube Goldberg machine, contraption, device, or apparatus is a deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction...
, constructed to operate in time with the song. The popularity of the second music video of the song has been compared to that of the band's video for "Here It Goes Again
Here It Goes Again
"Here It Goes Again" is an alternative rock/power pop song by OK Go, and is the third released single from the album Oh No. It also appears on the compilation album Now 23. It remains the band's only single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, where it entered the Top 40 at #38, mostly due to the...
", helping to boost live performances and single song sales for the group but did not significantly improve sales of the Colour album. Difficulties in marketing and distribution of the videos with their corporate label, EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, led the band to form their own independent label shortly after the videos' releases.
Song
The lyrics to "This Too Shall Pass" are written to encourage its audience, burdened with some figurative weight, to "let it go, this too shall pass" in the near future instead of continuing to let the weight keep them from enjoying life, akin to the meaning of the original phraseThis too shall pass
"This too shall pass" is a proverb indicating that all material conditions, positive or negative, are temporary. The phrase seems to have originated in the writings of the medieval Persian Sufi poets, and is often attached to a fable of a great king who is humbled by the simple words...
. The song continues much of the theme of Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, which, according to Damian Kulash
Damian Kulash
Damian Joseph Kulash Jr. is the lead singer and guitarist for Chicago-based rock band OK Go.-Early life:Born in Washington D.C., USA, Kulash graduated from St. Albans School in 1994, and later Brown University in 1998 with a concentration in Art-Semiotics. The family name was originally "Kulas"...
, was about "searching for hope in hopeless times"; "This Too Shall Pass" and other songs from the album were written at the onset of the late-2000s recession. Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
considered the song to be a "psych-pop anthem", similar to MGMT
MGMT
MGMT is an American alternative rock band founded by Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden. After the release of their first album, the members of their live band, Matthew Asti, James Richardson and Will Berman, joined the core band in the studio...
's "Kids
Kids (MGMT song)
"Kids" is the third single from MGMT's album Oracular Spectacular. It was released as a single on October 13, 2008.The song was the center of a legal dispute with the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, over the "insulting" compensation he offered for his illegal use of the song during a party...
"; this is in part due to the album's producer Dave Fridmann
Dave Fridmann
Dave Fridmann is an American record producer and musician. From 1990 onwards he co-produced all releases by Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips...
who had also worked with MGMT and The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips are an American alternative rock band, formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983.Melodically, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What...
and brought some of the same musical stylings along. The song's repeating four-note motif is reminiscent of the opening moments of Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...
's song "Mr. Brown
Mr. Brown (song)
"Mr. Brown" is a song by Jamaican group The Wailers. Recorded in 1970 at Randy's recording studio in Kingston, it was produced by Lee Perry and written by regular Upsetter musician Glen Adams...
".
First music video: Marching Band
The first video for the song was released on YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
on January 12, 2010, to coincide with the release of the album and the single. Directed by Brian L. Perkins, it was filmed in October, 2009, in South Bend, Indiana
South Bend, Indiana
The city of South Bend is the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total of 101,168 residents; its Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 316,663...
. The video is somewhat unusual in that it does not feature the album version of the song. Rather, it features an original recording that was actually performed live during filming of the video. OK Go's Tim Nordwind noted that the song lent itself well to large orchestration.
In the video, the members of OK Go are seen in a field wearing marching band garb. They begin to march, and as the song progresses, the band is joined by members of the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
's Marching Band many of whom rise up camouflaged in ghillie suits. They are also joined in the final chorus by a children's choir cobbled together from two local South Bend preschools. Like many of their other videos, the marching band video was shot in one take.
The marching band video was created to bridge the time between the release of the album and the expected completion of the Rube Goldberg video. The band had originally planned to release the marching band version after the debut of the Rube Goldberg video. However, they found time during October 2009 to work with the Notre Dame band, and realizing the length of time to complete the Rube Goldberg machine, went ahead and completed the marching band version.
Second music video: Rube Goldberg Machine
The second music video for "This Too Shall Pass" was directed by James Frost. Similar to the band's video for "Here It Goes AgainHere It Goes Again
"Here It Goes Again" is an alternative rock/power pop song by OK Go, and is the third released single from the album Oh No. It also appears on the compilation album Now 23. It remains the band's only single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, where it entered the Top 40 at #38, mostly due to the...
", the "This Too Shall Pass" video features a four-minute, apparent one shot
One shot (music video)
A "one-shot" is any music video which consists of action, continuous in time and space, from the perspective of a single camera — a single long take. In order to be able to make one shot videos several special techniques are used. Most commonly the stage props which are not currently caught on...
sequence of the song being played in time to the actions of a giant Rube Goldberg machine
Rube Goldberg machine
A Rube Goldberg machine, contraption, device, or apparatus is a deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction...
built in a two-story warehouse from over 700 household objects, traversing an estimated half-mile course. As the song and machine operate, the members of the band are seen singing alongside the machine, with the members being shot at by paint guns at the song's finale. Parts of the machine are synchronized in time with the music; in one instance, water glasses are used to repeat part of the song's melody in the fashion of a glass harp
Glass harp
A glass harp is an instrument made of upright wine glasses....
. One part of the machine shows the "Here It Goes Again
Here It Goes Again
"Here It Goes Again" is an alternative rock/power pop song by OK Go, and is the third released single from the album Oh No. It also appears on the compilation album Now 23. It remains the band's only single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, where it entered the Top 40 at #38, mostly due to the...
" video on a television before it is smashed by the machine. The MAKE magazine
Make (magazine)
Make is an American quarterly magazine published by O'Reilly Media which focuses on do it yourself and/or DIWO projects involving computers, electronics, robotics, metalworking, woodworking and other disciplines...
1993 Ford Escort racecar used for the "24 Hours of LeMons
24 Hours of LeMons
The 24 Hours of LeMons is a series of endurance races held on paved road race courses across the United States. The title is a parody of the historic 24 Hours of Le Mans series. Teams compete in race-prepared cars that cost no more than $500 for up to 24 hours...
" which was contributed by team member Brett Doar, appears in the video along with a LEGO
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
version of the car. Alongside the LEGO car, several LEGO mini-figurines are displayed as a reference to the marching band video.
Creation
The video's inspiration was from the band, who wanted "a giant machine that we dance with", a long-term aspiration of the band and inspired by other Rube Goldberg machines shown in videos on YouTube, including the interstitials used on the Japanese children's show, PythagoraSwitch. While they considered the idea of the machine for each song on Of the Colour, they opted to use "This Too Shall Pass" to make the end result "majestic and epic", even though it already duplicated the previous marching band video. They sought help through online science message boards, eventually coming in contact with Syyn Labs. From a pool of talent at a Syyn Labs-hosted "Mindshare LA" gathering, about 55 to 60 people from Syyn Labs, the California Institute of TechnologyCalifornia Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
(including some who work at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...
and participated in the Mars Exploration Rover
Mars Exploration Rover
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission is an ongoing robotic space mission involving two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring the planet Mars...
program, hence the model rover seen in the video) and MIT Media Lab
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
helped to design and construct the machine. Damian Kulash's father (Damian Kulash Sr.) also participated in the machine's construction. The team had to work on a limited budget, using recycled trash for many of the props in the device; after filming, the total estimated cost was approximately $90,000. The team avoided the use of "magic"—automated devices like computers or motors—and instead focused on purely physical devices. The total time to create the video from conceptualization was about six months, with two months of planning and four months for design and filming. The warehouse where filming took place was in the Echo Park
Echo Park, Los Angeles, California
Echo Park is a hilly neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and southeast of Hollywood.-History:At the end of the 19th century, when the hills were still covered with native vegetation, a horse-drawn streetcar line served the dirt road that is now Echo Park Avenue...
section of Los Angeles, and was secured by Syyn Labs in November 2009. The final construction within the warehouse took over a month and a half during January and February 2010. The band members helped in the last two weeks of construction, having spent the previous four months on tour. Once the machine was completed, the filming, using a single Steadicam
Steadicam
A Steadicam is a stabilizing mount for a motion picture camera that mechanically isolates it from the operator's movement, allowing a smooth shot even when moving quickly over an uneven surface...
, took two days to complete on February 11 and 12, with an estimated 60 takes for the machine to properly function. The first day of filming included 47 takes, none of which successfully completed the entire machine and necessitated a second day of filming. Many of the takes ended only 30 seconds into the process, at the start of the song's chorus, where a tire would fail to roll properly into the next section of the machine. Syyn Labs had a group of 30 people to help reset the machine after each failed take, a process that took upwards of an hour depending on how far the machine ran. There were no significant injuries during filming; Tim Nordwind once was hit hard with paint at the end, while the Steadicam operator nearly got hit with one of the barrels at the end of the mechanism in the shot used for the final video. His reaction may be seen in the released version of the video.
Several elements of the machine had to be properly adjusted to match the timing for the song. The group broke the song into sections, triggered when the machine passed certain gates, to account for small changes in timing that could occur (up to 0.5 sec, according to Brett Doar, one of the machine's chief designers), allowing the band to continue to lip synch while the machine operated. Smaller objects like dominoes were found to be the trickiest to set, as their patterns would be less predictable than larger and bulkier objects, which are more predominant in the later parts of the machine. Once the machine transitioned to the downstairs portion, it would generally run the rest of the course untouched. Furthermore, the time of day and temperature would play a big factor in how some small components would behave, forcing the team to readjust the timing. Ball tracks and other features had to be wiped clear of dust and debris to prevent slowing down rolling objects. A carved wooden ball track shown early in the video was created to have motions timed to the music, but required a low inclined angle that would often cause the balls to skip out of the tracks. Kulash noted that their largest "nightmare" for the machine was a set of mousetraps, triggered to release a display of colored flags; they were found to be overly sensitive to earlier actions of the machine, such as the dropping of a piano, and redesign and padding were needed to prevent the traps from being set off prematurely. The timing had to take into account the movements of both the band members and the cameraman; Damien Kulash estimated that though the machine was able to complete its opening at least three times, these shots were botched, because either the band members or the cameraman had fallen behind the action of the machine.
While the video was filmed as a single shot on at least three different occasions, they planned on using post-editing to slow down or speed up certain parts of the take to keep it in time with the final soundtrack. There is a noted cut in the video, in which the camera passes through a set of curtains on the transition to the downstairs portion of the machine; according to one of the machine designers, Hector Alvarez, this cut was introduced by the band, speculating it was introduced to avoid a shot of one of the band members or cameraman in frame or otherwise to keep the machine video synchronized to the machine. Both Tim Nordwind, bassist for the band, and Adam Sadowsky
Adam Sadowsky
Adam Sadowsky , is an American entrepreneur and former actor.He is the president of Syyn Labs, the company responsible for building the Rube Goldberg Machine featured in the music video for the OK Go song "This Too Shall Pass"....
, president of Syyn Labs, said that while the machine worked in its entirety 3 times, and no cut was needed, the decision was made so a better result on the downstairs portion could be included in the final version. There was also a second cut which can be noticed by watching a piano against a wall as the camera passed behind some rods; the piano can be seen apparently warping in shape and position.
Responses
The Rube Goldberg machine video premiered on YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
on March 2, 2010. Within a day of the video's premiere, it was viewed more than 900,000 times. The video achieved 6 million views within six days, which was comparable to the popularity of the "Here It Goes Again" video, and was considered "instantly viral" by CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
. The video has since had more than 10 million views in its first month of release. As part of the success of both videos, the band has begun auctioning props from the videos, including uniforms worn by the band for the marching band video and the individual ping-pong balls from the second video. The Rube Goldberg video was included in a shortlist of 125 entries out of 23,000 for inclusion in "YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video", a showcase of the best user-created videos from YouTube in conjunction with the Guggenheim Museums
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1937 by philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim and artist Hilla von Rebay. The first museum established by the foundation was the "Museum of Non-Objective Art", which was housed in rented space on Park Avenue in New York....
, but ultimately was not selected as one of the 25 winning videos.
Despite the success of the videos on the Internet, this has not translated into sales for the album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky which the song is a part of, selling only 40,000 copies since its January release. Part of this is attributed to the "unremarkable" music on the album and for the video; musician Max Tundra
Max Tundra
Ben Jacobs, more commonly known by the stage name Max Tundra, is an English multi-instrumental musician, singer and music producer. His work is predominantly electronic music but incorporates non-electronic styles and instruments...
suggested that the band should "record an innovative, exciting piece of music – and make a plodding, nondescript video to go with it." However, ticket sales for OK Go concerts have seen a surge since the video's release, as well as sales of digital downloads of the song through services like iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
. According to Nordwind, the band is not concerned with album sales, as their successes have come from "untraditional ways" through the band's career. Kulash has stated that with the continued success of their music videos as viral videos as was the case for "This Too Shall Pass", the band has seen more touring opportunities and an expanded audience they don't believe they would have gotten with more traditional videos under corporate label control. This has led OK Go to "look at making videos like [they] look at making records — it's part of the art of what [they] do", according to Nordwind. In part of the success of "This Too Shall Pass" and their previous videos, OK Go won the 14th Annual Webby
Webby Awards
A Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
Special Achievement Award for Film and Video Artist of the Year. The video was named both "Video of the Year" and "Best Rock Video" at the 3rd annual UK Music Video Awards
UK Music Video Awards
The UK Music Video Awards is an annual celebration of creativity, technical excellence and innovation in music video and moving image for music....
.
In May 2010, after the band split with EMI, the single debuted at #39 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, their first appearance on the chart since "Here It Goes Again
Here It Goes Again
"Here It Goes Again" is an alternative rock/power pop song by OK Go, and is the third released single from the album Oh No. It also appears on the compilation album Now 23. It remains the band's only single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, where it entered the Top 40 at #38, mostly due to the...
" in 2006. The song eventually peaked at #36.
At the time of the creation of the video, Syyn Labs has just been formed; the viral success of "This Too Shall Pass" brought the company to light for several similar creative projects involving the innovative combination of technology. When OK Go appeared on The Colbert Report on April 29, 2010 in which they performed "This Too Shall Pass", Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
opened the show with another, shorter Rube Goldberg machine created by Syyn Lab's Brett Doar, one of the chief creators of the "This Too Shall Pass" music video, using assorted props from the show. Syyn Labs have since created advertisements for Disney and Sears, and have been contacted for future work in music videos and movie opening sequences, and are considering a reality television show based on their creative process.
Difficulties with EMI
The marching band video sparked much controversy online immediately after its release. Because of deals between the band's label, EMIEMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
(through Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
), and YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, the video was not embeddable, nor was it viewable across the globe, frustrating many fans and music industry professionals who wanted to post the video on their blogs. The band, led by singer Damian Kulash, explained the label's rationale via the band's blog and through an op-ed piece in the New York Times. According to Kulash, EMI disallowed the embeddable play of the video because they only receive royalties for views on the YouTube site itself. He further pleaded to allow embedding of their next video, citing a 90% drop in viewership when EMI disabled embedding on existing videos, affecting the band's own royalties from viewership.
The band was able to secure the rights to allow the "This Too Shall Pass" Rube Goldberg video to be distributed via embedding prior to its premiere, in part due to funding support from State Farm Insurance
State Farm Insurance
State Farm Insurance is a group of insurance and financial services companies in the United States. The company also has operations in Canada....
, which helped to settle issues with EMI; in exchange, State Farm had some say in the creative process, and the video includes elements with the State Farm logo, including a toy truck that is used to start the machine. The video was completed a week later than expected; according to sources close to the band, Capital Records considered the window of opportunity for promoting the single to radio to be closed due to the delay, and would not be available again until June 2010. The band has since decided to break away from the EMI label on amiable terms, due to a combination of the issues of video embedding and radio promotions, and has become its own independent recording label, Paracadute Recordings.
External links
- The first video (Marching Band) on YouTube
- The official video ("RGM Version") on YouTube
- "Making Of TTSP" series on Youtube: #1, #2, #3, #4
- "Music and Machines: OK Go's Rube Goldberg Inspired Machine" by Adam Sadowsky, Syyn Labs; IgniteIgnite (event)Ignite is a global event, organized by volunteers, where participants are given five minutes to speak about their ideas and personal or professional passions, accompanied by 20 slides. Each slide is displayed for 15 seconds, and slides are automatically advanced. The Ignite format is similar to...
Event, March 3, 2010 - Interactive floor plan for the Rube Goldberg Machine from Ok Go (FlashAdobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
) - The Syyn Labs web site